Marketing Automotive

Nielsen Research organized recently a research to know if Russian motorist would be interested in driving green cars.

62 % of the respondents supported the idea that the government would sponsor the production of a hybrid or fully electric car. Only 16 % showed their skepticism about the idea. 85 % answered they would consider buying one if it was available now.

Questionned about their key expectations regarding a new car, the Russian drivers underlined the following priorties :

• Quality assembly (63 %),
• Affordableprice (57 %),
• Adaptability to Russian climate (34 %),
• Long term cost-effectiveness (25 %),
• Fuel consumption (25 %),

The most popular factors are directly connected with saving. Among non-price factors, Russians are focused on the practical side of the deal. The most important for them is adaptability of a car to the rough local climate and road conditions and a high quality of assembly.

March 2010

At the opening of the Geneva Motorshow, Philippe Varin, CEO of PSA Peugeot-Citroën  and Osamu Masuko announced that the time is not ripe for a financial merger. But Philippe Varin insisted on the fact that technical cooperation is on the good track.

He declared : “ We are going to launch soon electric cars under the name of  Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-zero. This could not have been possible so fast without a strong cooperation with Mitsubishi Corporation“.

March 2010

Years after years the number of cars recalled by the manufacturers varies from a few to millions.

Now, what happens  in 2010 ?

After the big number of cars recalled at Toyota during the last weeks, GM, Honda, Nissan, Peugeot announced on March 2 and 3 similar decisions.

The number are not small :

• GM : 1,3 million
• Chevrolet : 977.000
• Pontiac : 73.700
• Nissan : 540.000)

If you add all the numbers known since January 1, 2010 you will understand that the car industry is breaking a record and we are only early March.

Because Toyota opened the list, it is possible that other manufacturers will grasp the opportunity to come clean on any problem they could have. Therefore, in the short term, therte will probably be some overreaction.

But on a longer time perspective this could cause a slower process to roll out new models. The car industry is driven by competition between the key producers but also between the main suppliers. Competition is very often stirred by product innovation and a fierce fight to launch the new innovative cars as fast as possible in order to be looked at as a technology pionneer. The new cars are very complex and rely more and more on computer software, which makes problems very though to control by manufacturers and by regulators. In the US, in 1980 there were 146 million cars on the road and 119 employees at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Today there are 256 million vehicles on the road and 57 employees at MHTSA.

But not all problems pushing for product recalls are not really dangereous for drivers and passengers.  The GM Vice President of Quality, Jamie Hresko, explains : “While greater steering effort under 15 miles per hour may be required, these vehicles are safe to drive because the customer can still steer the vehicle. When the problem occurs, both a chime will sound and a “Power steering” message will be displayed on the dashboard.”

The real question is today that if you want to keep the confidence of your clients you are obliged to be transparent. You cannot keep problems secret.

March 2010